It is 2000 BC in Egypt and Imhotep the Ka-Priest brings home his beautiful young concubine Nofret. But not all the members of his family welcome her. When she is found dead Imhotep's daughter, Renisenb, suspects it might not have been an accident. The death unleashes the greed and hate that have been building up within the family and the horrific events that follow tear it apart.This is Christie's only book with a historical setting. The idea of setting a murder mystery novel in Egypt was suggested to her by Stephen Glanville a noted Egyptologist and close personal friend and colleague of Christie's husband Max Mallowan.

In Death Comes As the End, Dame Agatha Christie transports us back to ancient Egypt 2000 B.C. where a priest's daughter, investigating a suspicious death, uncovers an asp's nest of jealousy, betrayal, and serial murder.

It is Egypt in 2000 BC, where death gives meaning to life. At the foot of a cliff lies the broken, twisted body of Nofret, concubine to a ka-priest. Young, beautiful, and venomous, most agree that it was fate—she deserved to die like a snake!

But at her father's house on the banks of the Nile, the priest's daughter Renisenb believes that the woman's death is suspicious. Increasingly, she becomes convinced that the source of evil lurks within their household—and watches helplessly as the family's passions explode in murder. . . .